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Tuesday, 11 February 2014

First Impressions: Power Rangers Super Megaforce

Power Rangers Megaforce has returned for its second half (although despite being only 20 episodes, its being treated as a separate season), truly celebrating the 20th anniversary of the franchise with Power Rangers Super Megaforce (brilliant naming strikes again)! This is a very special season adapted from the 35th anniversary Super Sentai season Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, and sees the rangers gain the ability to transform into the rangers of all the previous Power Rangers seasons.

Following their defeat of the Messenger at the end of Megaforce, the planet Earth suddenly finds itself under attack from a new enemy - the Armada, the alien empire that Vrak and the Warstar aliens had come to conquer the planet in the name of. With Vrak going into hiding, the Earth is now at the mercy of his brother Prince Vekar and his army of X-Borg soldiers. The rangers are able to protect civilians from the attack, but are ultimately overwhelmed by the sheer number of opponents.

Returning to the command centre, Gosei presents the rangers with brand new Legendary morphers and Ranger keys to tap into an even greater power - Super Mega mode. While using these powers, the rangers are also able to call upon the power of the previous Power Ranger teams and transform into them using the corresponding ranger keys. With new powers and a new Megazord at their disposal, the Megaforce Rangers prepare for their greatest battle yet!

As my first proper Super Sentai show, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger is special to me and thus it was surreal to see the footage in a Power Rangers adaptation - something I've never really had before despite constantly jumping between the two shows since. Still, I believe that Power Rangers should be judged on its own merits and will avoid comparisons as much as I can - although something needs to be addressed first which has proved a sore spot with many viewers - the suddenly different fighting styles of the rangers. Goseiger and Gokaiger featured very different teams, and seeing the archer character become a swordsman (Blue) and the powerhouse now a comedic improv fighter (Black/Green) may be a difficult pill to swallow. Why I don't really know, given that Jake's character has already shown potential to fight in that style and that THE ENTIRE SHOW is going to be about characters constantly altering their movesets and fighting prowess. With the rangers going from magicians to samurai to ninja to martial artists to sharpshooters in mere minutes, I can live with the sudden change provided it isn't something the show starts drawing explicit attention to.

The power changeover (or more power-up, since the Megaforce powers are still live and kicking) was covered at a pretty fast pace, but not to the point where I'd call it overly rushed. There were some slight issues with it (such as why they couldn't have just had this power in the first place), but it covered everything the episode needed to and added extra explanation as to why they couldn't just constantly remain in the "legendary rangers" form. Credit for addressing Jake's transformation from black to green as well, even if it wasn't explained in favour of a slightly amusing joke. This first episode didn't give a whole lot away about the new set of villains, but what I saw of Prince Vekar, Damaras and Levira I certainly liked. Vekar's got the same regal feel as Vrak did, and I really hope the show has got plans for new footage showing the two brothers interacting.

It seems the show is going to casually ignore the obvious pirate motif the Super Megaforce rangers have, but the legendary changes were done very nicely (as anyone who saw Gokaiger would know). There was the correct morph call outs for the Samurai and Mystic Force teams which is likely to make any Power Rangers fan cheer with glee, but sadly this was not carried over to the SPD and Ninja Storm changes. Still. its nice to know that the show hasn't forgotten them and it's a good sign for things to come.

With the lingering questions of what happened to Robo Knight and when Vrak will be making his inevitable return, it's good to know the the dangling Megaforce plot lines haven't been forgotten altogether. All in all this was a solid start to Super Megaforce - not perfect by any means but certainly not so bad that hopes have been dashed altogether. Providing the cast can stop saying the words "super mega" ad nauseum, this might just be a great Power Rangers anniversary yet.

4 comments:

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